Andrew Flintoff finishes victorious against Kevin Pietersen

If you were looking for the physical embodiment of the phrase "pumped-up",
Andrew Flintoff provided it on Monday. His pride stung by a ropey IPL debut,
and his dander roused by the prospect of bowling to Kevin Pietersen, he put
in one of the most hostile spells of the tournament so far.

Flintoff's figures of 3-0-11-1 would be no more than a footnote in a Test match, but in a Twenty20 game that counts as a top-notch effort. And when you add in his earlier innings of 22 not out, from just 13 balls, it all added up to a very satisfying night for England's premier allrounder.

The only disappointment - both for Flintoff and for all English observers - was that he never had the chance to bowl at his earstwhile team-mate and rival. Pietersen was out first ball to Muttiah Muralitharan, and saw his team - the Bangalore Royal Challengers - go down by the massive margin of 92 runs. "I thought I got a nick on it," he later said of his crucial lbw decision, "but that's life."

While the concept of Indian city franchises may remain a little remote for most cricket fans, the confrontation between England's two biggest stars was an obvious hook for the marketing men. Port Elizabeth's radio stations have been running an ad in which Flintoff leaves a message on Pietersen's answerphone, asking to be in his team, and Pietersen turns him down flat.

There was, in fact, a direct confrontation between the two - though not the one most people had been expecting. The moment Flintoff walked out to the middle, Pietersen came straight on to bowl, perhaps hoping that the prospect of a dressing-room ribbing would make the willow feel heavy in the batsman's hands.

"It wasn't a case of me coming on to bowl to Fred," he said later. "It was just a spinner's wicket today, and I was trying to chop and change." It was noticeable, though, that Dale Steyn had been on the point of giving the umpire his cap until the new batsman arrived.

Related Articles

Flintoff faced four balls of Pietersen's twirly off-spin - which counts as an extended duel in the frantic world of Twenty20. One was played back to the bowler, two clipped away for singles, and the other whipped away to the square-leg boundary. In fact, that proved to the only boundary hit off Pietersen, who was surprisingly effective on the night.

The English players keep talking about all the 20-over lessons they are learning from this tournament, and here is another one: Pietersen can be a genuine allrounder in this format, at least when conditions are right. If Flintoff was the only batsman who really got to grips with him, that can probably be put down to the long hours these two have spent facing each other in the nets.

The first 10 overs of the match were probably decisive in the end. They produced a tour de force from Chennai's Matthew Hayden - whose close-shaven head gives him the look of an American GI - and who belted his way to 65 in no time at all. Hayden sent his team into the interval on an intimidating 106 for no wicket.

Needing to rally his troops at the interval, Pietersen delivered a blazing-eyed team talk. His next move was to bring himself on to bowl, and it paid off immediately: his first ball clean-bowled Parthiv Patel. Moments later, Flintoff was into the action, with an innings that featured some sweet strikes and one spectacular six off Steyn, as stepped across his stumps and whipped a full ball into the crowd.

While Pietersen's bowling helped drag the innings back a little, Chennai still finished on 179 for five - the highest score in any of the five games to date. It was always going to be a tall order, as long as the bowlers didn't let them down. And that was never likely to happen as long as Flintoff and Muttiah Muralitharan, two old friends from Old Trafford, were both on the money.

Flintoff suffered for his lack of a slower ball against the Mumbai Indians on Saturday, but he was not tempted to go down that road this time. Instead he kept it short, straight and speedy - and no-one could live with him. When he shook hands with Pietersen at the end, he wore the kind of open, beaming smile we have hardly seen since the summer of 2005.